SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 32

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 16, 2022 02:00PM
Context: House Hansard - 32 - Feb/16/22
Ms. Laurel Collins (Victoria, NDP)
  • Feb/16/22 4:43:28 p.m.
  • Watch
  • Re: Bill C-11 
Mr. Speaker, Canadian cultural workers, our creators and our artists, as well as our broadcasters, have suffered because of the unfair competition from streaming web giants and big corporations such as Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video. For years, the NDP has been calling for an end to this unfair system. I support the first steps in Bill C-11 to level the playing field. It is especially important to ensure that these corporations have obligations to fund and ensure discoverability of Canadian cultural content. However, web giants, including some of most profitable corporations like Netflix, Google, Amazon and Facebook, still do not pay their fair share of taxes on the profits they make in Canada. The government likes to talk about tax fairness, but it continues to protect the profits of these big web giants by delaying the implementation of the digital services tax. Does the minister know how much these web giants have avoided in taxes since 2015?
160 words
All Topics
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
Context: House Hansard - 32 - Feb/16/22
Ms. Bonita Zarrillo (Port Moody—Coquitlam, NDP)
  • Feb/16/22 5:18:18 p.m.
  • Watch
  • Re: Bill C-11 
Mr. Speaker, here in Port Moody we are named “The City of the Arts”, so this is very important to many in our community. Artists are both revered and appreciated here in Port Moody—Coquitlam and need support throughout this pandemic. Many of them have lost jobs and have lost many opportunities to share their talents. For clarification, does the member acknowledge that the large corporations need to pay their fair share to assist and nurture Canadian artists and content after the pandemic?
86 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
Context: House Hansard - 32 - Feb/16/22
Mr. Alexandre Boulerice
  • Feb/16/22 6:15:42 p.m.
  • Watch
  • Re: Bill C-11 
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question. I know that there is a very active and vibrant artistic community in her riding that has been weakened by the laissez-faire approach of successive federal governments and by the current crisis, which is still ongoing. I think she made an excellent point. As a progressive opposition party, we must be very vigilant about the powers given to the CRTC. I spoke a bit about that earlier. We need to be very serious and firm about information, data transparency, negotiations with web giants and the obligations that will be imposed. In my past life, I often saw the CRTC being somewhat lax, weak and complacent with large corporations. If the directives and guidelines are unclear, we cannot automatically assume that the CRTC will do the right thing.
137 words
All Topics
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border